Southern California -- this just in

2 lawsuits filed over molestation of boy, girl at new Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools complex

September 10, 2010 | 6:59
pm

Two lawsuits -- one filed Thursday -- have resulted from the molestation of a boy and a girl attending kindergarten at the new Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools complex.

The entire complex, serving about 4,200 students, will open Monday, but two elementary schools opened last year on a portion of the site facing south on 8th Street. It was at one of these schools, the New Open World Academy, where the molestations occurred from September through November 2009, according to court documents.

The perpetrator was a student from Virgil Middle School who was allowed to help the victims' classroom teacher. On multiple occasions, the older student took a boy and girl from the kindergarten class into the bathroom, committed lewd acts and threatened the children if they told anyone, the lawsuit asserts.

The victimized boy finally told his parents, said attorney Claire Kim, who represents that child and his family. The girl's family filed suit in July.

The perpetrator admitted guilt when confronted and has been tried in the Juvenile Court system, according to the lawsuit. District officials said they have expelled the student. They also removed the teacher from the classroom but would not specify what further discipline the teacher faced.

Both victims have left the school, but other parents were never informed about what happened, Kim said.